How to Get Started with Onsite Retargeting: A Guide for e-Commerce Marketers'

Marketing

06 June 2018926

Let’s face it, the main objective of every business owner is to increase sales. To achieve this goal, most businesses are constantly working to drive more traffic, and it might have worked well a few years ago but it isn’t good enough today. You’re just throwing your money out of the window if you only focus on increasing traffic.

According to Monetate, only 6% of ecommerce visitors put something in their cart. And then 67.89% of these visitors leave your cart without finishing the purchase – according to Baymard Institute. Which means, ~2% of your visitors will buy something.

Disappointing, right?

What if you could get a second chance to convince your visitors right before they leave your site?

Onsite retargeting does exactly that, gives you a second chance and helps to convert more visitors into customers.

It works by monitoring the behavior of your visitors, and when their behavior indicates they are ready for some additional message, it will be displayed to them. There are several ways to display your secondary message, it’s usually presented as a popup.

For all the beginners out there, here’s a list of tips to get you started with onsite retargeting, along with real examples that you can copy easily.

1. Engage early-stage visitors

Early-stage visitors are at the beginning of the buying process. They are not ready to buy yet: they might not know what they are looking for, or they simply need more information to make a decision. So, help them!

You have several options to boost engagement with early-stage visitors. You can help them to find the right information, promote useful articles or your best-selling products.

You can take a step further and capture their email addresses in order to convert them buyers later through email. Gamification such as Lucky wheel is a great way for ecommerce stores to build a healthy email list. Using the lucky wheel, visitors get an opportunity to win a prize in exchange for their subscription. It’s a great way to boost engagement because it raises the feeling of curiosity while being fun to participate in.

2. Promote your irresistible offers

Coupons, discounts and special offers are still appealing for customers. Whether it’s an end-of-season sale or a holiday campaign, onsite retargeting can bring your offer the attention it needs.

Check out this popup below that Bedding Stock used last September to promote their Back to School sale. A popup like this should be displayed to people who spent some time on your site browsing and show some level of interest in your products.

3. Combat cart abandonment

Cart abandonment is the biggest challenge for ecommerce stores to overcome. Many people browse online stores, put a few things to their cart, then suddenly close the tab to feed the dog or to watch Game of Thrones.

Luckily, you can do something to reduce the number of these visitors. Using onsite retargeting, you can display a message reminding them to their cart. If you offer a discount or free shipping, you can achieve even better results in capturing abandoning visitors.

Check out this popup below from Three Drops of Life, they offer 10% off and free shipping if visitors complete order in 10 minutes. Adding a countdown timer or a deadline can even lift your chances because it adds a sense of urgency.

4. Use product recommendation

Automatically recommending the most relevant products your customers want to buy is probably the most effective way to increase sales. Visitors who are trying to find the best solutions for their needs will be happy to see personalized recommendations.

While it’s possible to built for yourself a recommendation engine, you can also use OptiMonk’s built-in product recommendation template to showcase your best-selling products just like in the example below.

5. Build trust and gather customer feedback

In addition to building an email list and direct sales promotion, onsite retargeting can also improve the customer experience on your site.

You can ask for feedback from your prospects or existing customers like in the example below.

Companies that listen to their customers are constantly learning how to increase their sales.

You can also showcase your warranty and your return policy to build trust and increase confidence in your buyers. Warranties facilitate trust in customers – and trust plays a major role in driving sales and improving customer loyalty.

Conclusion

The average conversion rate is around 2% - and unfortunately, it’s become a bit of an industry standard, keeping expectations low. It can be complex to improve this conversion rate. That’s why many businesses focus on driving more traffic. But that’s the wrong tactic. Be better than your competitors and focus on converting more people into customers.

In this article, we’ve listed 5 tips to get you started with onsite retargeting, along with real examples that you can copy easily. If you need more information, read a beginner’s guide here.

About the author

Csaba Zajdo is an ecommerce specialist, founder of OptiMonk and several other projects specializing in conversion. OptiMonk is an award-winning onsite retargeting platform, which helps small and medium-sized businesses leverage the power of onsite retargeting. If it has to do with conversion optimization and eCommerce, Csaba is interested. He’s always looking for the best and brightest and he’s constantly on the lookout for game-changing solutions. Csaba has been involved with web marketing including search, lead generation, e-commerce, CRO, PPC, and analytics for over 10 years. He is also a frequent presenter at seminars and conferences.